I should mention that I do not use the star that often because I have disabled the history function in Firefox completely, including deletion of all cookies (except a few whitelisted ones) when closing the program. I also have a bookmark folder where I put my most used websites, sometimes adding a keyword (shortcut) to gain quick access to them. Disabling auto-completion of search terms has also focused and simplified my use of the address bar.
These changes has made my address bar instant to use with no clutter at all. Usually I find exactly what I'm looking for in less than a second, be it an often used URL or a far forgotten bookmark. In my opinion, this is the core functionality of a browser address bar. The current defaults has turned the address bar into the main interface for big search engines (with a capital G), which happily gobbles up all the data users send their way.
These changes has made my address bar instant to use with no clutter at all. Usually I find exactly what I'm looking for in less than a second, be it an often used URL or a far forgotten bookmark. In my opinion, this is the core functionality of a browser address bar. The current defaults has turned the address bar into the main interface for big search engines (with a capital G), which happily gobbles up all the data users send their way.